University of Michigan startup company AlertWatch Inc. has obtained federal certification to sell its patient monitoring software to hospitals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the company clearance to sell the software earlier this month.

AlertWatch helps anesthesia providers monitor patients in the operating room. The software aggregates data from physiological monitors, anesthesia records, lab results and medical history to produce a real-time display of a patient’s condition. The system produces data and shows color indicators to display whether results are normal, marginal or abnormal.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from clinicians who have seen the demo. Now that we’re over the FDA hurdle, it'll be great to get the product into their hands,” AlertWatch CEO Justin Adams said in a statement.

Adams said that preliminary data from analyzing more than 17,000 surgeries at U-M Health System –comparing operations using AlertWatch with those not using it – showed “promising results for the AlertWatch system.”

Dr. Kevin Tremper first started working on AlertWatch four years ago with one graduate student. Since then, the company has raised nearly $1 million from angel investors and matching funds from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Ann Arbor SPARK.

Courte of AlertWatch

Tremper, an AlertWatch co-founder and chair of the Michigan’s department of anesthesiology, said that the two-year-old Ann Arbor company is revolutionizing the way data is made available in hospital operating rooms.

“Today, we’re still using the same wavy lines, but we have all of this other patient information digitized and available. I wanted a tool that helped put all of that background patient information in context with everything else going on live in the operating room.”

In addition to pilots running at the University of Tennessee and University of Vermont, Adams said the company hopes to kick off installations at several large U.S. hospitals this year and he hopes to generate more funding for sales, and product research and development.

“AlertWatch has made impressive progress in their regulatory requirements and is a great example of the digital health opportunities from the university,” Ken Nisbet, associate vice president of U-M Tech Transfer, said in a statement.